This is an exclusive prelude to my ebook, Reason’s to Stay. This excerpt can only be found on my blog but you can find my ebook here: amazon.com/author/emilysearle. Enjoy :)
Silas pressed his chin into his hands as he sat on the window seat, watching a pair a birds squabble over a piece of string. He sighed loudly and glanced over at his brother to see his reaction. There was no reaction. Abraham had earbuds in as he quickly mashed the buttons on his game system. Silas huffed. He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring, unnoticed, at his older brother.
“You have to entertain yourself sometimes,” Abraham said in a lazy drawl without even looking up from his game.
Silas dropped his arms. He watched his fingers fiddle with one another for a moment before he sat up. “Let’s go outside.”
Abraham either didn’t hear or didn’t care to respond.
“Hey. Abraham.” Silas stood up and moved until he was standing right in front of Abraham.
The tapping of the small buttons snapped in the quiet.
“Go away.”
“Come with me outside.”
Abraham continued to ignore Silas.
Silas half gave in and sat on the couch. He watched as a behemoth monster struck several blows at a small, spiky-haired character. Silas smiled when the words Game Over faded onto the screen. Abraham’s jaw went tight and he plucked the earbuds from his ears.
At that same moment, they heard a familiar rumble outside. It was like a small explosion as their father’s sports car rushed over the loose pavement outside, flinging small rocks into the trees in the forest that surrounded their private mansion.
“Dad’s back,” Silas whispered.
Abraham jumped up and leaned himself toward the window, trying to gaze down into the corner where their father would be parking in the garages.
There was a silence that felt like an eternity as the boys remained frozen in their spots. The sun shone warmly in through the diamond shapes from the windows but Silas could feel his skin turning cold.
Finally, it came. The venomous shouts coming from down below. Silas could pick out the overused expressions of accusation from his mother and arrogant dismissal from his father. Silas looked up to find his brother watching him with his large, hazel eyes.
“You know what you have to do around loud noises?” He said. “You have to be louder.” He stepped up onto the window seat and jumped high into the air, landing with a thud.
Silas grinned. He grabbed an aluminum baseball bat and swung it at one of the thick beams surrounding the play room.
Abraham laughed and Silas reveled in his approval. Together they banged on books and toys. They shouted nonsense and slapped their feet over the wooden floors.
At last, they paused, out of breath and ideas. They listened for the continued sounds of arguing coming from downstairs. Outside was still for the time being. Silas felt an unexpected emptiness and he frowned.
“Let’s play a game,” Abraham said, walking to the board games sitting on the shelves in the far corner of the room.
They quietly set up the pieces to the game. Neither of them spoke nor acknowledged the insecurity that lingered in the air.
The game was nearly halfway through when there was a soft knock on the door. Abraham and Silas looked up as a maid poked her head into the room.
“Dinner,” Abraham said. “We’ll finish after we eat, okay?”
“Okay.”
Silas woke in the dark. He didn’t open his eyes at first. He wasn’t even sure what had woken him. He felt as though something had crashed. No. That wasn’t the right word for it. It was a sound like a hammer to hollow steel. Not the sound itself that had stirred him but the memory. An immediate memory, though, as if the sound had taken its time to slowly register within him and wake him up.
When he did open his eyes he saw his mother. Her back was to him. Her long, curly hair hung down to the middle of her back and the moon spotlighted her perfectly like she was the star of an unsettling show. Silas was not surprised to see her but he couldn’t think why. It should have been unusual to see her.
“Mom?”
“You’re a murderer, Silas,” She said without turning from the window.
“What?” Perhaps she was sleep walking. Silas looked to his door, readying himself to go find Abraham. But he couldn’t for some reason. There was a blackness inside him that kept him from moving.
“I should have kept you away from him from the beginning.”
Silas had heard that phrase before. She used it once when Abraham had fallen out of a tree and broken his arm. Mom, just let it go, Abraham had said to her.
“Where’s Abraham?” Silas asked. He was probably asleep, but, then again, he was sure he wasn’t.
His mother snickered. “You don’t remember already? Fine. It doesn’t matter anyway. He’s here to punish you whether you know what you did or not.” She turned to face him and Silas jumped. His face fell open to scream but the terror had blocked his air. Abraham stood outside Silas’ window. It was Abraham but it was something different. Its eyes were black and wide. Its body was pale and it stood bent as if gravity was trying to push it deep below the earth.
Silas leaped out of bed and flung himself at his mother, trying desperately to find refuge. His mother closed the drapes over the window. She placed her hand onto Silas’s head. He grunted when she yanked his head back by his hair. “I’ll be leaving you here. I need to go to the city to take care of some things.” She pushed him away from her.
Silas panicked. “No, wait. Let me go with you. You can leave me there if you want. You’ll never have to see me again.”
“Why would I do that? You deserve to rot here.”
Silas began to cry. Large tears rolled over his cheeks and he wheezed as he spoke. “You’ve always hated me. Why did you even have me?”
His mother turned as she stepped out into the hall. “Every human has a right to live. But I was made to hate you and you were born to be hated.” She disappeared in the darkness.
Silas struggled to breathe. He jumped back into bed, shielding himself with his blankets. “Go away!” He screamed. “I’m sorry for whatever I did! Go away!” His sobs echoed throughout the empty house.
